Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call(CARROLL COUNTY, Md.) -- A former chief of staff to Sen. Lamar Alexander has been found dead is his parents’ Maryland home, authorities said Friday, a month after the staffer was charged with possession and attempted distribution of child pornography.

Ryan Loskarn, 35, was fired from his position as chief of staff to Alexander, R-Tenn., after he was arrested at his Washington, D.C., home.

The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to ABC News that he died on Thursday and said a preliminary investigation shows he might have committed suicide.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to a private home on the 6900 block of Kenmar Lane around noon Thursday “for a report of an unconscious male, believed to be deceased,” Colonel Phil Kastens of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

“Family members reported finding 35-year-old Jesse Ryan Loskarn unresponsive in his basement where he’d been residing with family since this past December,” Kastens said. “The preliminary investigation indicates that Loskarn may have taken his own life, and his body has since been transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for Autopsy. The investigation continues.”

“For everyone involved, this is a sad and tragic story from beginning to end,” Alexander said in a statement.

Since he was charged last month, Loskarn was living in his parents’ Maryland home and wore a court-ordered ankle bracelet to monitor his movements. The court also barred Loskarn from using the Internet while he awaited a grand jury hearing.

Loskarn was a well-known figure on Capitol Hill for years, having worked for former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.